Peaking
by Friendly Uncle
Summary: An aside to my RockMan X RPG... Atarashi's friends go after his control chip so he can be revived...


Author's note: This little spit of a story is actually an aside to the RockMan X RPG several of my friends and I are involved in. A while ago, a repliroid warrior named Atarashi was killed in battle against a powerful Maverick named Delta. However, his core chip survived, and was entrusted to a repliroid named Lowellius until it could be given to Magne Hyakulegger, who would use the chip to revive Atarashi. Magne was busy at the time, however, and Lowellius continued to keep it. Now Magne and his other accomplices have need of Atarashi's strength again, and thus they are trying to revive him. Unfortunately, as they are going to find, getting the chip back is easier said than done.  
  
RockMan X and Magne Hyakulegger are the property of Capcom. Lowellius and Mt. Tycho are the intellectual property of Lowellius. By writing this tale I am not implying that I own the brainchildren of either of them, nor am I making any money off them. The Evil Guy, Burn Reptile, Insomniac Man, and Atarashi are my intellectual property. This story is mine too, don't steal it, or I shall raise such a fuss..!  
  
Peaking  
  
A RockMan X fanfiction by Magna Centipede  
  
The enormous peak of Mt. Tycho turned crimson in the light of the setting sun, giving the volcano an even more forbidding appearance. Even as mountains go, Tycho was huge, making it fairly easy to believe that an entire town was nestled in the middle of its crater, deep at the bottom. A suicidal place to live in any other volcano, Mt. Tycho was safe for human habitation because the raw magma inside it was safely redirected into the three huge forges that could produce weaponry of untold power. The mountain of fire was a place of age, mystery, and bloodshed, for it was here that many humans and repliroids alike had lost their lives.  
  
"Now THAT would look great on a postcard," said The Evil Guy, framing the image with his fingers. Behind him, Burn Reptile shook his head.  
  
"No offense, but I don't see why we had to bring the spastic dude along. He might be powerful, but he's not much use in a fight."  
  
"I take offense at that," muttered Insomniac Man, "I take offense at all of it. they all hate me! YES! But I won't let my guard down, I never sleep.. hehehehe! I never sleeeeeep!!!"  
  
"Not to mention the fact that he's insane," said Evil sarcastically. Reptile sweatdropped and let his head droop into his hand. "Yeah, that too."  
  
The three of them were at the foot of Mt. Tycho, hiding in the mountain's monolithic shadow. They had nothing much in common, The Evil Guy was a cyborg, Burn Reptile a Maverick repliroid, and Insomniac Man. was an insomniac. However, one thing bonded them all tightly together, a single defining characteristic they all shared that united them as one.  
  
They were poker buddies.  
  
And now one of their own was in trouble. They had recently been informed by their mutual friend Magne Hyakulegger that their occasional fifth man, Atarashi, had died a fairly horrible death at the hands of a Maverick leader named Delta. Fortunately, Atarashi's central control chip had survived the battle, and been entrusted to a repliroid by the name of Lowellius. Unfortunately, while Lowellius had faithfully kept the chip in safekeeping while Magne dealt with his own problems, now that he felt he could safely resurrect his friend Magne was unable to contact Lowellius. However, he knew that Lowellius lived and worked at Mt. Tycho, and had determined that Atarashi must be somewhere inside. Thus, he had requested that his poker buddies get the chip on their own.  
  
"So how do we do this?" asked Burn Reptile. "The place has to have some sort of security system, right? Do we know what kind of stuff is waiting for us in there?"  
  
Evil sighed. "Unfortunately, no. Since Delta got stomped down Lowellius may have made any number of modifications to the systems inside. The forges might be working, or they might not. There may be guards, or it might be deserted. There might be laser death beams all over the damn place, but then again, there could be giant vats filled with cotton candy."  
  
"SUGAR!?" Insomniac Man ran about in circles, shrieking at the top of his lungs in some bizarre mix of absolute horror and livid excitement.  
  
"I'd kill him right now if he wasn't one hell of a card player," muttered Reptile. Evil shrugged. "It's not likely the place is totally unguarded, insane or not we'll be able to use the help."  
  
"I wanted Mags to lend us his other experiment," said Reptile, "he's created a repliroid who can take a plasma shot to the face without flinching, but apparently he's also the mental equivalent of an eight year- old. Magne said the chances of him going out of control and wiping the floor and surrounding environs with us and everyone else he can get his mitts on are high enough that it wouldn't be worth the risk to let him loose."  
  
The Evil Guy stroked his chin under his mask. "I didn't know he'd built anything that powerful, does the guy have a name?"  
  
"He calls him Gram."  
  
"Sounds a bit light for such heavy work."  
  
Reptile's right eyebrow twitched upwards. "If I could whack you upside the head without killing you, I would."  
  
Evil chuckled. "Yeah, I get that a lot. Anyhow, there are three entrances, so I say we split up and take them individually, since Magne gave us each our own map. That way at least one of us is bound to make it."  
  
"Sounds like a plan," said Reptile.  
  
"Sounds like team spirit," said Insomniac. Evil and Reptile looked at each other, shrugged, and started walking towards the mountain. Insomniac followed, making airplane noises.  
  
* * *  
  
Deep within Mt. Tycho, a vast and sophisticated computer sprang to life as external sensors detected the presence of three intruders. No data was available, but visual examination and sensor readings indicated they would be easily dealt with by standard measures. The computer dispatched three units to intercept and sat back to watch the proceedings.  
  
* * *  
  
The Evil Guy continually scanned his surroundings as he walked down a long corridor of roughly hewn stone. Evil was a cyborg, a human equipped with technological enhancements that increased his fighting capacity far beyond that of other humans. He wore black armor with purple and dark blue trim, a long navy blue cloak hanging from his shoulder plates. His helmet covered his face, but a pair of glowing bluish white eyes could be seen through his dark visor.  
  
Thus far this adventure was pretty boring. It seemed most of his first guesses had been right, there were no guards or lasers or traps. The closest thing to a security system was the uneven flooring that occasionally tripped him and sent him flailing closer to the jagged walls than he felt comfortable about.  
  
He sighed, yawned, and interlaced his fingers behind his head as he strolled along. It was easy money, anyway, but unlike most bounty hunters he was more annoyed than relieved by easy tasks. He craved excitement and battle, the hot adrenalin rush piercing cold fear that he felt whenever he put his life on the line. It was a sensation that rivaled intimate contact in intensity, and it was the reason he had chosen this line of work, and long ago, why his very body had been transformed into a form better suited for battle.  
  
As this last thought ran through his mind, The Evil Guy found himself stepping into a larger area, a place where the corridor opened wider into a circular area many yards wide, the ceiling extending higher into a hemispherical shape. The whole thing had the air of an arena about it, and the far more level floor only added to the sensation.  
  
Evil licked his lips anticipation, turning slowly in the middle of the floor, looking for his opponent.  
  
It came in the form of a black shape in the outgoing door, which quickly became a tall, humanoid repliroid. His armor was dark, dull blue over gray with scant red trim around the joints. The helmet was fairly standard, leaving the face exposed, but in this case the face was a smooth metallic mask with shining black eyes the only facial feature. A symbol was emblazoned in white over his facemask, mirroring the same marking in red on his chest. The Greek letter Alpha.  
  
The cyborg in the middle of the ring bowed formally, a hint of amusement evident in his voice as he spoke. "Well well, Aalpha eh? I am The Evil Guy. Perhaps you've heard of me?"  
  
Alpha apparently hadn't. He faced the cyborg squarely and raised his right arm, gauntlet morphing in a flash of light to form a sleek, deadly cannon. He pointed the weapon directly at The Evil Guy's head and spoke in a deep, dry monotone.  
  
"Evacuate this facility immediately. You have thirty seconds to comply. Any retaliatory action will be answered with lethal force. This is your only warning."  
  
"Ah well, I was bored anyway. Think fast asshole!"  
  
Evil's arm snapped up in a graceful but nonetheless incredibly fast motion, aiming his palm at Alpha. Raw energy blazed around his arm before gathering into his hand and erupting outwards in a blast of superheated plasma.  
  
Alpha didn't even blink, but snapped of a shot of his own, intercepting and canceling out the cyborg's attack.  
  
"Noncompliance noted. Have a nice day. in hell."  
  
He fired again. Evil whistled in slight appreciation, kicking up dust as he dodged to the side. Another blast streaked toward him, followed closely by more, fired at inhuman speed from the guard's weapon. The Evil Guy grinned intensely under his helmet as he hopped back and forth, his Emergency Acceleration System humming as he almost effortlessly avoided the blasts. Leaping straight up into the air over another one, he raised both hands, power coalescing between them, and hurled a massive bolt of energy at his opponent.  
  
Alpha didn't even blink as he leapt to the side, landing lightly on his feet and ignoring the dust and rock fragments kicked up by the small explosion. At the same time The Evil Guy landed at the opposite side of the room, eyes blazing with menace. Alpha calmly raised his cannon, meanwhile transforming the other arm into an identical weapon.  
  
Evil held up his hands, plasma charges building in both palms.  
  
Flashing bolts of power lit up the arena as the two warriors careened around the room, circling, launching plasma blasts at one another with both hands, each coming close but never actually connecting with an attack. Finally, Evil leapt upwards, bounced off a wall, and came flying at his opponent, plasma blazing from his hands. Alpha screeched to a stop and returned fire. Both warriors let out snarl of pain and rage as the other's attack impacted just before they slammed into each other.  
  
Momentarily stunned, Alpha nonetheless had the presence of mind to try and kick the cyborg off himself. Evil, however, was already leaping aside, landing as far away from his enemy as he could get with one jump. He spared a few seconds to examine his left arm, the armor of which was charred and cracked around the wrist. His mechanical hand hung limp and unresponsive. Snarling, he reached into his belt with his right and drew a long metal tube. Rearing back to his full height, The Evil Guy raised the tube horizontally in front of his face and flicked a switch, extending a long blood red blade of energy from it.  
  
Alpha had suffered similar but more debilitating wounds, both of his cannons were out of commission. The faceless guard was not largely bothered by this, however. Concentrating, he morphed his forelimbs back into hands, and then, into a new configuration, similar to the cannons but sharply angled and with narrower barrels. Turning to face The Evil Guy, he raised his arms into a martial arts fighting stance, shimmering blue energy blades emerging from the tips of his weapons.  
  
The Evil Guy blasted forward, beam sabre whirling. Alpha met him in mid- charge and the two collided again with a blast of blue and crimson lightning. Alpha whirled and lunged, stabbed and slashed, dizzyingly fast with his blades, but Evil somehow managed to keep up with him, blocking both beam blades with one and dodging each stroke that somehow managed to breach his defenses.  
  
"You're good," he muttered, finding himself forced back and away, unable to take the offensive. Alpha failed to respond and, somehow, increased the momentum of his attack, his weapons humming loudly, almost like screams as he thrust them at Evil's vital areas. Finally, a stroke connected, opening up a thin line across the cyborg's breastplate, mixing the acrid smell of burnt metal with the coppery aroma of freshly spilt blood.  
  
"That's about enough of THAT!"  
  
The Evil Guy leapt up and forward, flipping in mid-air to land on his feet behind Alpha. The guard whirled quickly, but Evil had not attacked, and instead was rapidly opening up a number of panels inlaid in the armor on his left arm, pulling out several sets of wires and affixing them to his beam sabre. Interlocking the fingers of his left hand with his right, he clasped the weapon between both hands and held it up, the blade suddenly doubling in width and intensity.  
  
"Now, this is an interesting little trick. I've just hooked my beam sabre up directly to my energy generators. At normal running power, it's not that much of a boost, but."  
  
Alpha ignored him and rushed forward, blades spinning. Evil just chuckled darkly and leapt straight up into their air, raising his weapon above his head.  
  
"If I increase my own power, the sabre is enhanced as well. KYOKUTAN!!!"  
  
The cyborg's body was surrounded in a dazzling aura of blood red energy. Alpha stopped short, eyes widening slightly in surprise, then raised both energy blades over his head in a blocking motion.  
  
The Evil Guy came down, smashed his beam sabre through both of Alpha's weapons, and sliced the repliroid bodily in half.  
  
Alpha didn't even have time to scream as the two pieces of his body fell backwards, spewing crimson circulatory fluid and sparks. Evil's left eye twitched involuntarily as he noticed the sparks showering heavily over the growing pool of fluids. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor, he turned and raced out of the arena's exit. Seconds later Alpha exploded in a violent fireball.  
  
* * *  
  
The crater was huge, dark, and forbidding. The city within was far below, a thousand feet into the darkness. Jumping into the chasm meant certain death.  
  
Crouching at the lip of the hole was a large repliroid; seven feet tall with powerful limbs and a wedge-shaped reptilian head. His armor was dark blue and black with flaming red trim, spikes jutting out of his arms, back and shoulders. A long, thick tail coiled on the ground behind him, the tip flicking a bit as he surveyed the suicidal leap below him.  
  
Having grown bored, Burn Reptile straightened, and dived in.  
  
The wind rushed by him with incredible speed, the temperature increasing somewhat as he fell into the depths of the volcano. Narrowing his burning red eyes, the lizard-like robot streamlined his body and angled himself towards the side of the volcano's throat.  
  
The impact was bone-jarring, but he didn't even flinch as he ricocheted off the stone wall, careening into the rock opposite and bouncing off again. Screeching and sliding, he slowly decreased the speed of his decent until he was jumping from side to side, moving ever downward, deeper into the blackness.  
  
The darkness let up, however, revealing a well-lit interior. The town was shaped largely like a normal city, except the streets were of bare rock and it was easy to tell that the city ended abruptly with a stone wall about a mile off in any direction. Reaching the end of the volcano's throat, Reptile screeched to a halt, digging his claws into the side to keep from falling. Looking around, he picked a tall building within reasonable distance and leapt.  
  
Somersaulting in the air slowed his descent somewhat so that when he hit it was only with minimal damage to the concrete roof. Grunting with the strain on his servos, Burn Reptile straightened to his feet and surveyed the city within Mt. Tycho.  
  
It was deserted. Not a single sign of life for as far as the eye could see. He was slightly relieved to see that there was no sign of death either, Magne had said that during the battle with Delta the streets had been strewn with the dead left by his massacre of the city's human inhabitants. Apparently that had been cleaned up.  
  
Reptile stood there for a long moment, sampling the scenes and listening intently for any sound. There was none.  
  
"Maybe there is no security system," he mused, "Its possible Lowellius just didn't expect. WHOAH!"  
  
An arc of shimmering golden energy reached into the air and came down at him like a falling tree. Reptile leapt away, landing in the street to the side of the building. His eyes widened as the enormous wave of plasma tore through the concrete and brick like so much butter.  
  
"Spoke too soon."  
  
Turning his head, Reptile followed the energy as it dissipated, ending back up at its source; a huge broadsword with a blade made up entirely of plasma. Holding it was a large, bulky repliroid wearing armor of blood red over gray with forest green detailing. His face was featureless except for two black eyes and a symbol mirroring the one on his chest. Beta.  
  
"You are not welcome here," Beta stated in a grating monotone. He raised his weapon and swung it horizontally at Reptile. The blade elongated and lashed out like a massive whip, sending forth a devastating wave of power.  
  
Burn Reptile ran forward, eyes blazing with battle lust. Carefully gauging the distance of the plasma blade, he leapt over it at the last second. At the top of his leap, he opened his mouth wide and belched out a stream of blue-white flame.  
  
Beta's eyes widened slightly, registering a modicum of surprise. Returning his sword to its usual size with a flick of his wrist, he held it up horizontally in front of his face. The fire attack struck it with a loud Thump! of displaced air, but the white-hot fire could not penetrate the guard's energy blade.  
  
Burn Reptile was not bothered by this. Landing, he raced at Beta with superhuman speed, claws spread wide. Beta made a "Hrmph!" noise and launched a diagonal arc of cutting plasma. Reptile grinned humorlessly and skipped to the side, dodging the attack with practiced grace. Beta snarled and spun, releasing a vertical attack before whirling and sending out another horizontal wave. Reptile flipped to the side to avoid the first, and rolled under the second. Coming up right underneath the startled guard, Reptile launched himself off the ground feet-first, slamming a kick into Beta's chin.  
  
Staggering backwards, Beta recovered just in time to see Reptile's tail snaking towards his face. Snorting with contempt, he sliced at it with his weapon, forcing Reptile to hurriedly yank it back with a hiss of rage. Diving forward, Reptile tried to claw the guard's chest open. Beta returned the gesture with a back-handed blow from his sword. Reptile abandoned the jab and ducked under the plasma blade, sweeping a leg at Beta's ankles. Beta stepped back and brought his sword down in a stabbing blow at Reptile's head. The Maverick rolled to the side to avoid the blow, and Beta followed it up by turning and swinging his sword in an upward arc, generating another plasma wave. Reptile neatly sidestepped and hopped backwards, breathing heavily.  
  
Beta's shoulders were heaving, but he made no other outward sign that he might be tiring. Taking a step forward to increase his momentum, he swung his sword downwards and into the ground, unleashing a gigantic wave of raw energy.  
  
Reptile's eyes blazed as the spikes on the backs of his arms stood up straight, and the armored scales on his hands spread open, covering his hands in small barbs. Glowing points of crimson appeared in his palms, then spread out to cover his entire hands. Roaring, Burn Reptile raised his arms and caught Beta's attack.  
  
The guard repliroid stared. Reptile snarled and struggled as he held the plasma wave at bay with his bare, albeit glowing, hands. Steam shot out of slits in his forearms as his coolant system strained to keep up with the massive amounts of heat he was generating. Then, with a final scream of rage, Reptile jerked his arms upwards and sent the energy flying upwards and out of the volcano.  
  
Beta stood there in disbelief as Reptile caught his breath, the steam from his arms slowly petering out and the bloody glow on his hands disappearing before the spikes on his armor folded back into place. The two warriors faced each other down for a long time, neither one still sure that he could win the contest.  
  
"What are you?" Beta asked at last. Reptile's eyes narrowed and his mouth twisted into a sinister smile.  
  
"I am death, following the stench of fear that creeps from you."  
  
Beta growled, hefting his weapon. "I fear no one!"  
  
"That's your problem." Burn Reptile leapt forward, launching himself into the air and streaking straight at his opponent. Beta let out a scream and slashed at the speeding repliroid, raw plasma blasting out of his sword in response to the sentinel's rage.  
  
Burn Reptile held out his right hand, and the spikes jutted out anew, his hand blazing with energy as the kanji of fate appeared on the back of it. Laughing maniacally, he slammed into the plasma blast, fist leading, and broke through it.  
  
Beta let out a high-pitched scream of pain and terror as the reptile's burning grip closed on his face.  
  
"My hand burns with a terrible power. They are the same flames that will torment you in hell for eternity!"  
  
The lost repliroid's helmet cracked, and then shattered, blood spraying in all directions. His sword blade dissipated into nothingness and the handle bounced to the ground as his body sank to its knees, then fell backwards. Reptile's mouth twisted once more into an insane grin, flame flickering at the edges of his mouth.  
  
"Finishing move, the hand of the devil. Be sure to thank him for lending it to me."  
  
The body exploded in a brilliant display of pyrotechnics, but Burn Reptile simply walked through it, cackling.  
  
* * *  
  
"Go to sleep little baby. go to sleep little baby. you and me and the devil makes three, don't need no other lovin' baby."  
  
Insomniac Man crept slowly through the ventilation system, squeezing carefully through the tight confines of the air duct. His bloodshot eyes stared constantly straight ahead, intent upon his goal. He couldn't see a thing, of course, but he was sure it was there, somewhere up ahead.  
  
"Paranoia paranoia everybody's coming to get me.!"  
  
His light blue pinstripe armor scraped against the sides of the ventilation shaft, totally ruining his paint job, but he didn't care. He continued surging forward, against all odds, against all reason, against anything that made any sense.!  
  
"I'm not sick, but I'm not well. 'cause it's so hot. and I'm in HEEEEEELL!"  
  
Then, rather abruptly, his patience was rewarded. The proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, and there before him lay his goal, his prize, his salvation.  
  
The duct grate.  
  
"Chalk up another successful infiltration to crawling through the air ducts," he muttered as he scooted further forward. "Though it's kind of ridiculous, I mean, with how many other great fortresses have been snuck into by way of these things you'd think someone would have the sense to spot wield these things shut. How stupid do you have to be to-"  
  
WHANG!!!  
  
He sat there for a full ten seconds before the pain registered, and he slowly shut his eyes in agony as his ever present headache spiked up to new levels. "Okay, looks like someone finally got a clue. Damn that smarts."  
  
He sat there and cursed quietly to himself for several minutes before he attempted once again to escape. Squirming around enabled him to get his hand on the grate, which allowed him to. not tear it loose. The metal it was made of was apparently considerably stronger than he'd anticipated, and in his cramped position, unable to get any decent leverage, even his nervous energy wasn't enough to break free.  
  
Sighing, he fell upon his only option, and transformed his arm into a plasma cannon.  
  
That was, as it turned out, not the best possible move. The plasma shot did melt the grating, but the backlash of the cannon, combined with Insomniac's bulky body already straining to squeeze into the cramped space, was enough to burst the apparently less resilient seams of the air shaft. The end result was that Insomniac Man fell about ten feet to the solid stone floor below, landing just in time for the molten remains of the grating to land on top of him.  
  
"AAAAIIIIIEEEE!!!!!" Screaming and running around in a berserk high, of course, just made it worse, but he had too much energy to simply lie there and let the hurting go away on its own. Fortunately for the reader, who must now be well and truly sick of inane slapstick, Insomniac ran headfirst into a wall and toppled over, unconscious.  
  
Sometime later (about ten seconds), Insomniac awoke, sat up, and rubbed his still throbbing head. Then his eyes bugged back out to their normal proportions as he realized that, brief as it was, he had experienced a moment of the blissful oblivion that is sleep.  
  
"Yay!"  
  
Filled with new vigor, he pranced on down the hall towards the middle of Mt. Tycho's subterranean section, wherein Lowellius's vaunted lab was said to rest.  
  
His trip was halted abruptly as the floor in front of his feet was struck with a hail of bullets. Hopping backwards, Insomniac looked up to see his path blocked by a repliroid of about his diminutive height but of a slighter build. The guard's armor was a deep, rich shade of green with gray and blue detailing. Round barrels on his forearms and shoulders housed what appeared to be a formidable array of machine guns. His face was a smooth silver mask with black eyes and a Greek symbol that was also stenciled onto his chest, Gamma.  
  
Insomniac's eyes widened even more. He bounced up and down a few times, grinning happily.  
  
"Are you going to play with me?"  
  
Gamma seemed somewhat taken aback. "What? Play? That. does not compute. uh, you're under arrest!"  
  
Insomniac Man responded by transforming his right arm into cannon mode, his smile taking a somewhat more malicious slant. "No, that's not the way to play the game. this is how you do it!"  
  
Gamma swore and hopped to the side as the sleepless repliroid fired a plasma bolt. Narrowing his eyes, the sentinel shot towards his opponent, guns blazing. Insomniac Man giggled and ran to the side, straight up the wall, and onto the ceiling, where he aimed his cannon downwards at his opponent.  
  
Gamma looked straight up in bald shock, eyes widening to a size comparable to Insomniac's.  
  
"How the hell did he.!?"  
  
ZAP!  
  
The plasma bolt struck him right in the forehead and knocked him clean off his feet. A second later Insomniac fell on top of him with a bump, straddled him, and began gleefully punching the stunned repliroid repeatedly across the face.  
  
Gamma just lay there for a few seconds before he managed to scrape together enough brain cells to figure out a way out of his predicament. When he did, his eyes suddenly took on a bright neon green glow. Insomniac Man had about a second to wonder what was up with that before twin beams of energy lanced out and struck him in the chest, sending him sprawling several feet down the hallway.  
  
Gamma growled as he regained his feet, glaring balefully as his opponent. Insomniac Man simple bounced back up and hopped up and down a few times, totally ignoring the large burn marks in his armor.  
  
"That was great! Can I do it again? Can I!?"  
  
"Sure."  
  
Gamma unleashed another pair of optics blasts. However, this time Insomniac leapt into the air and avoided them. Upon coming back down, he let off another shot from his arm cannon, which Gamma ducked. Roaring, the guard repliroid opened up with all eight of his machine cannons.  
  
Insomniac Man squeaked and raised his arm to protect his face from the first volley, which struck sparks on his armor and tore a long furrow across his less heavily protected thigh. Frowning, he allowed the two halves of his faceplate to slide into place before raising both arms, converting them into cannons, and returning fire.  
  
Unfortunately for Insomniac Man, his aim sucked. Gamma took advantage of this by ducking and weaving back and forth, avoiding every shot by a few feet, meanwhile filling the entire hallway with titanium-jacketed death. Even if he'd tried to Insomniac couldn't have dodged that kind of firepower, and after a few seconds the bullets began boring into his armor and tearing through somewhat more vital parts of his body. A few bullets ran right down the barrel of his right arm cannon, which began to spark wildly seconds before exploding and tearing off a fairly large patch of armor. Screaming, Insomniac fell over backwards and lay still.  
  
Gamma continued to pump fire into his opponent's prone body for a few moments before he let up. Chuckling darkly, he walked over to survey the exact scale of the carnage he had wreaked.  
  
That was, as it turned out, not the best possible move.  
  
Insomniac's left hand lashed out and latched onto Gamma's leg. Before the startled guardian could react, the former robot master inflicted his trademark attack.  
  
"SLEEP DRAIN!"  
  
Gamma screamed as energy crackled all over the joined bodies for a precious few seconds. Releasing his opponent, Insomniac Man hurriedly rolled away. Gamma pointed an arm at him, intending to fire the machine guns mounted on his gauntlet, but found that his once rock-steady aim was trembling like a leaf.  
  
The shock of an overworked system rolled over his entire body, which began trembling violently as well. His left eye increased in size to almost twice that of his right, and bright red blood vessels stood out on the onyx black optics. Gamma's head lolled back slightly, and his shoulder shook even more violently as he began to cackle hysterically.  
  
"No. sleep. No sleep! No rest for Gamma! No more rest ever again bye bye sleep see you later! Bye bye! Hee hee! HahHhahahHahahHAHAHhahHAHhahHAHha!!! NOOOOO SLEEEEEEP~!!!!!!!"  
  
He spun around, peppering the walls with bullets. His laughter grew shriller and his voice finally cracked as he grew dizzy and fell down.  
  
"Where are you sleepy sleepless man!? Where have you gone? Come back! Come back and give me my sleep! I WANT MY SLEEP!!!"  
  
Turning, he found himself staring down the barrel of Insomniac's remaining arm cannon.  
  
"Rest for eternity," he growled.  
  
ZAP!  
  
* * *  
  
The Evil Guy slumped against the wall as he reached the door of what the map assured him was Lowellius's laboratory. He needed a few minutes to rest, his battle with Alpha had been fairly tiring, and the long hike afterwards hadn't helped. Fortunately he hadn't run afoul of any other traps or guards, and he was thanking his lucky stars for that. If there was anything else down here as strong as the first sentinel, or worse, he might have been in trouble. Not that he couldn't take it out, but using his kyokutan technique more than once when he was injured could potentially strain his systems beyond their ability to self repair, and that would be a nasty way to go.  
  
"Hey Evil, what you doin'?"  
  
Evil smirked slightly as Burn Reptile sauntered into view, a little singed, but otherwise appearing to be unharmed.  
  
"Oh, killing things, havin' a bud."  
  
"True, true."  
  
"WAAAAZZZAAAAAP!?"  
  
"Wha. oh, I just can't do it. Do you have any idea how old that joke is?"  
  
Evil shrugged. "You started it. Run into any trouble? You appear to be somewhat mussed up."  
  
"Nothing I couldn't handle. What about you? Your Sunday best is a little worse for the wear."  
  
The Evil Guy chuckled sadistically and flexed his healing but functional left hand. "You should see the other guy."  
  
"I did, that bonfire forced me to take to the %^$#@!ing air shafts again you doink."  
  
Insomniac Man limped bad-temperedly into their midst. Reptile whistled as he surveyed the shorter repliroid's collection of bullet holes. "Talk about worse for wear, what happened to you?"  
  
"Robin Hood on steroids. Let's just get out of here so I can go home and try to sleep."  
  
Evil blinked. "He's no longer spastic? What happened?"  
  
Reptile smirked. "He can drain sleep from people. Unfortunately one repliroid only gives him enough composure to be cranky instead of insane, but I'll take what I can get."  
  
"Bite me, napalm breath."  
  
The three poker buddies stepped towards their goal, a simple, unassuming steel door. However, beyond that lay their greatest adventure yet, probably more danger, untold perils, and beyond that, their bestest buddy returned from beyond.  
  
"Evil," asked Reptile, "do you have any more witticisms you'd like to share with us now, or are you saving them for later?"  
  
"Hmmm, let me think, I'd hate to disappoint you. Okay, how about this: is it too late to pick door number two?"  
  
"Cute. Insomniac, last words?"  
  
"Tell ma I died happy. Only one of my eyes is twitching."  
  
"Right, let's go."  
  
Burn Reptile gripped the door's knob firmly, and turned.  
  
". that was fairly anticlimactic."  
  
The room was dark and silent. The faint scent of numerous chemicals reached their nostrils, but aside from that there was nothing much to be obsered. The Evil Guy groped around until he found a light switch, and flipped it. Illumination revealed that this was indeed a lab, but it was entirely shut down. A few electronic components could be seen scattered on the work benches here and there, and off in the corner was the remains of what looked like a green repliroid leg, but aside from that there was nothing there.  
  
.. except. a vaguely humanoid form covered by a white sheet.  
  
The trio looked at each other. Insomniac Man shrugged, walked over to the table, and drew the sheet aside.  
  
Lying there was the half completed form of a repliroid with a pale face, unruly black hair, and a thin but muscular frame. In some places where his body had been completed, black and purple armor was already in place, and one arm conspicuously sported the curved shape of a retracted sonic blade.  
  
Burn Reptile grinned. "It's him! It's Atarashi! We did it!"  
  
"Hold on," said Evil, fiddling around with something in the repliroid's chest, "we don't know if his core chip has been installed yet. ah, here we."  
  
Abruptly Atarashi's eyes opened, glowing purple. Insomniac Man freaked and hid behind Reptile. The half-completed repliroid slowly pushed himself up onto his arms, wavering slightly.  
  
"Burn.. Reptile.? Evil.? What's. going.. on..?"  
  
His eyes dimmed and he pitched forward. The Evil Guy caught him, grunting softly as he hefted his friend off of the table and over his shoulder.  
  
"Easy there bud, we'll answer all your questions as soon as we can finish you up, it ain't healthy for you to be conscious when your motors aren't all in place yet."  
  
"Doesn't Magne already have a body built?" asked Insomniac Man. Burn Reptile nodded. "Yeah, but apparently Lowellius was already rebuilding him. it's not biggie, we can just take the chip."  
  
Evil shook his head. "Nah, Lowell made a few modifications.. I'm sure Mags'll want to study them. Don't worry, we can teleport him as easily as we go ourselves. Ready to go?"  
  
"YES!"  
  
Evil grumbled and activated his teleporter as his friends did the same. "Let's not get sore, I've had a bad day too."  
  
End 


End file.
